


Brave Vesperia's Yuri Lowell

by pikohan



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-04
Updated: 2013-06-04
Packaged: 2017-12-13 22:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/829755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pikohan/pseuds/pikohan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day started out a bright and sunny day of spring and you notice something going on towards the fountain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brave Vesperia's Yuri Lowell

So this is what’s up.

You’re a kid from the lower quarter, a regular commoner with no parents to call your own and living off the kindness of the citizens around you. Food and clothes are hard to come by—sometimes having to go a few days or a week maybe without eating—and often you find yourself curling up behind the barrels near the water so you can sleep.

Growing up a poor orphan in a poor neighborhood sucks, but it’s everything you know so you grin and bear it—at least some of the people around are nice enough to share a slice of bread or a piece of fruit when they can spare it.

You’re six—Hanks says you’re six and since he’s the closest thing to a parent you have, you take his word for it (he’s also been around forever, so he probably remembers when you showed up better than you)—when you meet him. All bright as the sun and polite enough to sway everyone’s heart. He’s nothing like you, and you feel mildly put off at how perfect he seems.

So you pick a fight with the kid, to show the world—mostly yourself—that he’s not the perfect kid he thinks he is. At first he brushes you off—if nothing else pisses you off, being brushed off and not taken seriously sure as shit would—and you try harder, eventually throwing a punch in frustration. He holds his cheek with surprised eyes for half a second before he retaliates by tackling you to the ground.

You’re surprised he can fight and you’re even more surprised when he actually wins your tussle. The both of you stand up from the ground and you wonder, partially disgruntled and mostly contemplative, how you could have lost. It’s not like you’re the best fighter around—you’re still a kid after all—but you’re pretty damn good and to be beaten by someone feels humbling. He tells you his name is Flynn Scifo and then he invites you over for dinner. Not one to deny free food, you agree.

That night you met your first inspiration.

His name’s FInath Scifo, Flynn’s dad. He’s a knight by day, father and husband by night, and great at both of his jobs if the stories Flynn tells you are true—they probably are, Flynn doesn’t seem like the lying type. Both of Flynn’s parents are nice enough you seconds when you finish your meal. You thank them for their kindness and eat until you’re full for the first time you can remember.

The more you hear about the duties of a knight, the more appealing it sounds—helping citizens in need, fighting monsters, keeping everyone safe, fighting monsters—and you often drag Flynn out to fight each other to get stronger.

You’re eight when you decide that fighting with fists isn’t going to be enough. You and Flynn—who has become your first friend—decide to work around and try to save up enough money to get a sword with which to train. Running errands for a Gald or two and often sneaking around the public and royal quarter to scour for some dropped coins the more privileged people drop on the ground. Eventually you find enough money to buy a wooden sword to share.

Then Flynn’s dad died in action and Flynn and his mom moved away.

Once again you’re alone and on the streets starving and sleeping behind barrels and eating what you can. But this time you have a goal. You want to be a knight, to help citizens and fight for justice.

You’re sixteen when you hear about recruitments and seventeen when you finish training and get sent on your first mission. You see your childhood friend again, the meeting more underwhelming than you expected. You also meet a pair of twins both on your team and your commanding officer is a pretty popular guy. He’s what you aspire to be in a knight and a person. You find yourself sometimes watching him interact with people, citizens as well as fellow knights.

It’s after his death that you realize how flawed the judicial system is. How unfairly people are still treated and how even the shiny knights don’t do nearly enough.

You decide you don’t want to be a part of an unfair system. You’ve always been one to do things your way, and you’re not one for authority figures anyhow.

Flynn, though, can work his way up and work from the inside to right the wrongs when he gets to the top.

You’ll find a way, one way or another, to help Flynn.

Your own path—even if you have to carve it out with your bare hands.

And Repede too.

Sometimes you stare at that little puppy and feel all the regret you felt the day you had to end Lambert’s life. You couldn’t save him and had to orphan one of your friends. It tore at you, that day, to have to do it. It tore at you even more when you dragged yourself home and told Repede.

It hurt worse when Repede forgave you so easily.

You ask him, a few weeks after you and he leave the knights to journey back to the capital, and he says you wouldn’t have done it if there was another way.

(Or that’s what you think he said; you’re not even sure he understands you, or that you understand him, really. But you feel like that’s the gist of it—you hope that’s the gist of it.)

You take your time in traveling back, it’s not like there’s anything waiting for you so what’s the harm in seeing the sights a bit? Slay some monsters, make idle conversation with Repede, stop in a town to eat and sleep or you put some things you got from the last town together for dinner and sleep with an eye open under a tree—though you wonder if it would be possible to find a tree to sleep in (would it be safer?) and be less of a target.

You’re twenty-one and sitting in your window, watching the world outside your room. Your thoughts drift here and there, nonsensical thoughts and serious thoughts that make you feel increasingly irritated. Flynn is working his way up the ranks and doing his best and you’re stuck trying to figure out what you can do to help—what the best way to help would be.

It isn’t until the lower quarter’s blastia gets stolen that you take note of much anything beyond your thoughts.

The day started out a bright and sunny day of spring and you notice something going on towards the fountain. Before you move to take a look, however, Ted comes in and tells you what’s going on. Then Ted says Flynn’s not even in the city to fix the situation; so you decide to check it out yourself.

When Hanks tells you the name of the bastard who swindled everyone’s money—and ran off with the blastia too, what the hell—you decide it’s time to take matters in your own hands. Can’t afford to wait around for Flynn to come back and fix the situation, not when the fountain’s flooding over like it is.

Finding yourself in jail—again—wasn’t what you had planned for your day when you woke up, but you’re not surprised. What is surprising is the weirdo in the next cell over talking to you and even slipping you a key. Thinking more on it now while you have this prime opportunity to escape would be stupid, so you push the thought aside and leave.

Meeting a girl in frippery was also not on your day’s agenda—neither was accepting her request to pretty much kidnap her—but whatever, you’ll deal with the consequences of that when you get to it; for now, it’s best to find your way out of the labyrinth of a castle.

(And who designed the damn castle anyway? It’s fancy, but the hallways look the same; how is a person supposed to walk around and not get lost? Yeesh.)

Being chased halfway across the continent and visiting different cities and finding out the blastia thief named Mordio was false information and the actual Mordio was just a kid—a hot-tempered kid, really, but it was charming in its own way you suppose—was irritating. You’re glad to hear that it wasn’t Rita who stole the blastia, but that just means you’re back at square one and have no leads on the blastia thief.

Eventually you do find the real culprit and get the blastia back, but there are other problems to handle and Estelle needs your help in finding her path—growing up so sheltered and ignorant must suck but she’s doing pretty well, you suppose, and making good enough decisions on her own more often than not.

Killing Ragou, however, was difficult. It’s not that you regret it—because the man was guilty and the justice system had failed and after being released, he would just continue doing awful things; the world is better without him—but the fact you had to do it was jarring. Killing another human being is not something you will ever be proud of, nor will you ever enjoy it, but sometimes it’s necessary. This is exactly why the system needs to be changed, and this is why Flynn’s working so hard to get to a point where he has the authority to change it, to make it more agreeable for everyone. Until then, you decide you’ll do what you can to save the people around you.

It sucks, but better you than anyone else.

It’s more beneficial to get rid of people who only want to hurt the innocent instead of letting them go so they can hurt more.

It’s these thoughts circling in your mind when you realize Cumore needs to be stopped too.

(Though really, he was the dumbass who stepped off the ledge and fell into quicksand—you just neglected to save him. But you would have ended up killing him anyhow; at least this way you don’t have to clean the blood off your sword and your soul doesn’t feel as heavy.)

It’s more jarring than you thought it would be when everyone finds out what really happened to Ragou and Cumore. They’re the first real companions you’ve had in your life and you’ve grown attached to them; thinking about how they could react was a lot more disconcerting than you expect. You don’t want them to think any less of you—to be afraid of you, to be uncomfortable around you—but you believe people should own up to their actions and accept whatever the consequences. Pleasantly surprised is the feeling you get when they all accept it, when you realize they understand you enough to know you wouldn’t willingly kill anyone without a good reason. It feels good to be understood and accepted.

And it definitely sucks ass to be betrayed.

You stay up thinking about it at night because it’s hard to understand. How and why would Raven beguile you like that. How could he take Estelle and give her to Alexei—did he not know how much pain she would be in, did he even care?

Did he ever consider you comrades? Friends?

It hurts.

And it just hurts worse when you have to fight him.

More when he saves you and you’re forced to—once again—do the worst job and leave him there to die.

Stupid old man.

You’re just thinking about how you need to push those thoughts aside to dwell on later—can’t be distracted when chasing Alexei, especially not when Estelle needs you—when he shows up like nothing’s wrong. It makes you angry. You sense the sincerity of his words when he offers you his life, the life he believes is forfeit anyway if/when Alexei finds out.

But Raven isn’t a bad person. He’s not like Ragou or Cumore or Alexei who need to be stopped for good. Raven was a good soldier until he died ten years ago, and it wasn’t entirely his fault he did what he did—he could’ve fought harder and still refused to listen to Alexei somehow maybe, but that’s all in the past now—and he’s genuinely remorseful to the point of giving you his life, even.

You decide to let him live, with his life belonging to Brave Vesperia. It’s an easier decision than cutting him down straight away, but you believe in him and you’re sure he won’t be betraying you again. If he does, well, you’ll just take up your sword against him again and end it for good.

It’s hard to be that person. The person having to do the dirty work for the good of the people and the good of the world.

Though the good of the world and the good of the people rarely means good for an individual.

Because as much as you don’t want to, it still doesn’t change the fact you might have to kill Estelle in order to stop her. It’ll be hard, probably the hardest thing you’ve done to date, killing a comrade before they destroy themselves and other people.

It’s like Lambert all over again. A comrade that had the misfortune to be taken and used against their will.

But this time, it’s worse.

More often than not, you’re finding yourself awake at night, ruminating about the situation—trying to think of another way that doesn’t end in Estelle’s death.

You’re still trying to think of another way when you beat her and feel relieved when she gains control of herself. If it weren’t for Rita, Estelle probably couldn’t have been saved at all.

If it wasn’t for Rita, the world probably would have ended.

Alexei would still summon the Adephagos, Duke would have sacrificed everyone’s lives to stop it, and humans would cease to exist.

Sacrificing the blastia instead is a gamble, but one you’re willing to be your life on.

A gamble you thankfully won.

The world is saved and everyone can relax and breathe easily now that the creepy as fuck Adephagos isn’t looming through the skies and incurring foreboding and despair to anyone looking up. You look around as you walk down the street and see the people walking with relief on their faces, happy to be free of it.

It’s difficult having to live without the blastia, but blastia weren’t always around and if nothing else, humans are adaptable.

Flynn’s doing great as Commandant and working to better the laws and fixing things so people with money and power can’t cheat out of punishment for their wrongdoings anymore.

You visit him sometimes, when you’re in Zaphias, to see how he’s doing and maybe convince him to take an afternoon off for lunch and to walk around or a fight—wouldn’t want to let the beloved-by-all-Commandant to get flabby from sitting at his desk and doing paperwork all day, would you—or a day or two to relax in Yumanju’s hot springs.

Usually you travel around the world and seeing new sights, helping people in need and taking care of some monsters too. It may not be glamorous or fancy, but it’s fun and it’s something you really enjoy. Traveling in itself is already something you enjoy and helping people as per the laws of Brave Vesperia is equally enjoyable and rewarding.

You’re not sure what’ll come next, but you do know that with your companions with you, you’ll be able to handle anything that comes your way.

Because you’re Brave Vesperia’s Yuri Lowell.

**Author's Note:**

> I really like second person and I decided it was time stop whining about the lack of them and get off my ass and write one. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!


End file.
